Paolo Nicolai

Paolo Nicolai
portrait
birthday	August 6, 1988
place of birth	Ortona, Italy
size	2.03 m
partner	2006–2008 Francesco Giontella 2009–2010 Matteo Varnier 2011 Matteo Martino since 2011 Daniele Lupo
World ranking	Position 10
successes
2007 - U21 world champion 2008 - U21 world champion 2009 - Italian champion 2012 - Olympic fifth in 2013 - World Cup ninth in 2014 - European champion 2016 - European champion 2016 - Olympic silver 2017 - European champion
(As of June 18, 2019)

Paolo Nicolai (born August 6, 1988 in Ortona , Abruzzo ) is an Italian beach volleyball player . He became European champion in 2014, 2016 and 2017 and won the Olympic silver medal in 2016.

Career

Nicolai took part in 2006 with Filippo Belcecchi at the U21 World Cup in Mysłowice and finished 29th. A little later he reached the final of the U19 World Cup in Bermuda with Francesco Giontella , which the Germans Erdmann / Klass won. In 2007 Nicolai / Giontella became U21 world champions in Modena with a win against Gavira / Fernandez . They defended this title the following year in Brighton against Brouwer / Varenhorst . Between these two successes, they made their debut on the FIVB World Tour at the Open tournament in Roseto degli Abruzzi and also played their first Grand Slam in Klagenfurt .

In 2009 Nicolai formed a new duo with Matteo Varnier . After a 13th place at the Masters in Gran Canaria , Nicolai / Varnier finished fifth at the Rome Open, making it into the top ten for the first time on the World Tour. They achieved the same result at the Masters in Berlin . At the World Championships in Stavanger , they came in second in the group in the first main round and were defeated by the Canadians VanHuizen / Redmann . Nicolai played the Open tournaments in Åland and The Hague with Matteo Ingrosso and finished ninth and thirteen. At the European Championships in Sochi, Nicolai / Varnier were eliminated as third in the group after the preliminary round and finished the tournament in ninth place. They also became Italian champions that year.

Nicolai / Varnier finished the first three tournaments of the 2010 World Tour in 17th place. Since Varnier then had health problems, Nicolai played with various partners as the season progressed. First he appeared again with Matteo Ingrosso in Moscow and Prague. At the Grand Slam in Gstaad and the Marseille Open, he took 25th place with Gianluca Casadei . In Kristiansand was Matteo Martino his teammates. At the U23 European Championship in Kos he was third with Paolo Ingrosso . The next year he first played two open tournaments with Daniele Lupo on the 2011 World Tour . He finished seventh in Brasília and retired early in Prague . From the Grand Slam in Beijing , Nicolai played with Martino again. At the World Cup in Rome , Nicolai / Martino reached the round of 16 as third party with a win against Numberdor / Schuil ; there they had to admit defeat to the Spaniards Herrera / Gavira after three sets . After the World Cup, they played three more Grand Slams before Nicolai formed a duo with Lupo again.

In Stare Jabłonki and Klagenfurt, Nicolai / Lupo finished ninth each. At the EM in Kristiansand they won only one set in the preliminary round and were eliminated early in the group as the bottom of the group. On the World Tour, however, they stayed in the top ten as seventh in Åland and fifth in The Hague. At the beginning of the 2012 season they were fourth in Mysłowice and ninth in Shanghai , before reaching a final in Beijing for the first time; they were subject to Nummerdor / Schuil. They achieved further top placements as third in Gstaad and ninth in Klagenfurt. They qualified for the Olympic Games in London via the Olympic rankings . There they reached the third-placed playoffs in the round of 16, which they won against the US duo Rogers / Dalhausser . In the quarterfinals they lost to Numbersdor / Schuil and were fifth. In the very first tournament of the 2013 World Tour , Nicolai / Lupo made it to the final, which they lost to Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal . After finishing ninth in Shanghai, they finished third in Corrientes and ninth again in Rome. World Cup in Stare Jabłonki they won their preliminary group and the first knockout game before they were eliminated in the round of 16 against Herrera / Gavira. On the tour they came third in Long Beach and Xiamen , fourth in the Klagenfurt Masters and ninth several times.

The first two tournaments of the 2014 season in Fuzhou and Shanghai they won against Alison / Bruno and Samoilovs / Šmēdiņš . At the European Championships in Quartu Sant'Elena , they won their preliminary group and got into the final without losing any further set. There, like in Shanghai, they met the Latvian duo and became European champions with a tiebreak win. At the subsequent Grand Slam in Moscow, they finished fourth. They reached another final at their last FIVB tournament of the year in Klagenfurt against Alison / Bruno. They started the 2015 World Tour with three ninth places. At the World Cup in the Netherlands, they were second to the Russians Semyonov / Krassilnikow in the first knockout game . Then they finished fifth in Gstaad Major and ninth in Yokohama . At the European Championships in Klagenfurt , the defending champions were dethroned in the round of 16 by their compatriots Ranghieri / Carambula . Later Nicolai / Lupo finished third at the Sotschi Open and fourth at the CEV Masters in Milan . They finished the season in fifth place at the World Tour Final in Fort Lauderdale .

They lost their first final of the World Tour 2016 in Vitória against Alison / Bruno. In Doha they finished fifth and at the Fuzhou Open they were again in the final, this time against Dalhausser / Lucena . Then they won the Sochi Open against Semjonow / Krassilnikow. They finished fifth in Moscow. At the European Championships in Biel / Bienne they won their preliminary group despite a defeat against the German Böckermann / Flüggen . With three wins in the knockout round, they reached the final and were European champions for the second time against Semjonow / Krassilnikow. They qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro via the Olympic rankings . Like four years before, they reached the knockout phase via the lucky loser game. They won the Italian duel against Carambula / Ranghieri as well as the quarter and semi-finals against the Russian duo Ljamin / Barsuk and their competitors from the European Championship final. In the Olympic final they had to admit defeat to Alison / Bruno and thus won the silver medal.

Web links

• Profile at the world association FIVB (English)
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)
• Paolo Nicolai in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FIVB world rankings (as of June 17, 2019)